Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Sorted by date Results 1994 - 2018 of 2505
Our First Anniversary E arly next month, it will be a year since we opened Coppei Coffee Co. As readers will recall, it was in early August when the café, Betty's Diner and the Anchor all opened at the same time following months of renovations and preparations. It was an exciting week- end. Switching hats from running the till at the Coppei nonstop to covering the news for the Times that first Satur- day, I wandered over to the diner to take pictures of the crowd there and stopped by the new...
Okay, we're taking two risks here. First is the risk of repeating ourselves because we've opined about local business support on this page several times before. Second is the risk of offending those Waitsburgers who get it and do exactly what we're hoping more local residents will do. But we're willing to take those risks because entrepreneurs in town, like myself, took a chance when they located their businesses here and we believe we deserve the community's support. The lo- cal businesses create jobs, generate city tax revenues, support...
The drought and crop losses occurring in the Midwestern United States have reached the mainstream headlines. There are feature stories running in national publications and on prime-time television with photos of devastated corn crops in Il- linois and Indiana. The dry heat of the last few weeks has cut potential corn pro- duction by at least a third overall, but radically more in some states. As a result of this harsh weather pattern, prices for all grains have risen. Corn is up $2.12 per bushel (+41 percent), Soybeans jumped $1.60 (+11.6 perce...
Residents Organize An All-American Parade Second Annual Fourth Of July Parade Brings Out A Modest Crowd To Honor The Holiday And Veterans W AITSBURG - As the fire siren sounded on top of the Waitsburg Fire Depart- ment last Wednesday, the former soldiers and some friends and family members began to march. Cougar Henderson kept the pace on the drum and the veterans honorably held their flags high in the air as they paraded at a slow, reverent pace down Main Street. For the small Fourth of July...
This week, we're carrying Morgan Smith's front-page story about the first prospective tenants for Blue Mountain Sta- tion on the outskirts of Dayton. Even though Port of Columbia officials are understandably careful not to release the names of the tenants until leases are signed, at least two of the three prospects appear solid after com- mitting verbally to the unique new business park. This is exciting news for the Touchet Valley and we want to take this opportunity to congratulate Port of Columbia Man- ager Jennie Dickinson, Port...
United States wheat prices, on a big run, are showing no sign of exhaustion, even after a move up of $1.90 per bushel in just 12 trading days in Chicago, reaching $8 for September futures on Tues- day morning. Portland white wheat has captured well over $1 per bushel for new crop in the same period, reaching $7.80 Tuesday morning. Virtu- ally all of this price enthu- siasm has been generated by drought conditions in the Eastern corn belt (Indiana, Illinois, Tennessee), but the heat has now begun to stress the entire Midwestern row- crop area. A...
Summer Food Program Feeds Students For Free DAYTON -- For many students the end of the school year means no more homework or tests, but for some, it also means the end of accessible breakfast and lunches. The Dayton School District summer food program was created with the aim to help these students. It provides free breakfasts and lunches to anyone younger than 19 years old and they don't even have to be enrolled in any pro- grams. This year, the pro- gram started on Monday, June 18 and serves...
I n the span of little more than a month and a half, the emergency room in Dayton General Hospital is expected to be completely remodeled bringing a new, improved, and most importantly, up-to-code facility. The remodel should be completely finished by July 23, according to Shane McGuire, the Columbia County Health System director of operations. The remodel will have more than aesthetic benefits. One late-project alteration included updating the nurse call system from a single-level of alert to the state mandated multi-code alert system. McGuire...
In the last week, the market has added $14 million or more in value to this summer's Walla Walla County wheat crop. White wheat for delivery to Port- land, Ore., at harvest was worth $6.65 to $6.85 just more than a week ago on June 15. As of Tuesday morning June 26, bids for the same wheat were between $7.45 and $7.50. Who to thank? The hot weather in the Midwest that is stressing the corn crop. Weather models con- tinue to forecast hot and dry weather for much of the Midwest. Parts of the Eastern corn belt -- Illinois, Indiana, and Ten-...
Huxoll's Service Won't Stop After High School Editor's Note: This is the third of a three-part series of profiles on the winners of this year's Times $500 com- munity service scholarships given to Waitsburg, Prescott and Dayton students. These three seniors were chosen for our scholarship based on community service, grades, need and their bright futures. Kayla Huxoll is the scholar- ship winner from Waitsburg High School. W AITSBURG - For Waitsburg High School graduate and class of 2012...
In the past, we've lamented the fact that parents' control over their children's choices in life seems to be dwindling. As parents, we are confronted every day with the power of marketing, the appeal of visual electronics (read: video games and television) and a legal system that leaves us with fewer and fewer means to resist the poor choices our kids make. But at least in our Touchet Valley communities, children, parents and educators seem to be making choices that are paying off for stu- dents, for the reputations of our school districts and...
There are a couple of noticeable influences in the wheat and other market atmo- spheres this week. Grain prices are being driven upward by - surprise! - hot and dry summer weather. Crop size forecasts that had been consistently ratcheting higher week-to-week through May are now giv- ing back. The swift plant- ing progress for corn and soybeans in the Midwest earlier this year set up high expectations, but now the plants are in a relatively advanced stage of develop- ment that calls for more moisture even as the sum- mer furnace goes...
I have been fortunate to work with Chris Blackman for the past four years at Wa-Hi. I am also the parent of a student with Autism who currently attends Wa-Hi and has been attending Walla Walla Public Schools since kindergarten. Over the years, I have met no teacher or person quite like Chris. She is consistent in her philosophy on how important services are to all children and passionate about ensuring ev- ery child has an opportunity to succeed. Additionally, Chris is an excellent communicator, sets high expectations for her students, and...
Turner Dreams Of Writing For The New York Times Editor's Note: This is the second of a three-part series of profiles on the winners of this year's Times $500 com- munity service scholarships given to Waitsburg, Prescott and Dayton students. These three seniors were chosen for our scholarship based on community service, grades, need and their bright futures. Garett Turner is the scholar- ship winner from Dayton High School. D AYTON - Garett Turner has big dreams, a lot of determination and a jack...
Here at the Times we've been in the community service spirit. We give out three scholarships each year to deserving stu- dents who not only show a financial need, a bright future and high GPAs, but they're students who have passion for serving the community. It was hard to select our chosen three because those who applied had done great things: Ran sports camps for local youth, picked up trash, took the Draw the Line campaign to Olympia, helped out in elementary school classrooms, par- ticipated and helped organize blood drives and food...
In a story titled "Brown Runs Again For County Seat" in the June 7 edition of the Times, the number of candidates in the District 2 county commissioner race who have been employees of the county was misstated. Frank Brown was employed by the county as deputy coroner and coroner. Perry Dozier has also been an employee of the county because he is the current county commissioner....
At the end of May, 84 percent of Washington winter wheat was reported by USDA in good-to-excellent condition. Oregon was listed at 76 percent and Idaho at 91 percent. Spring-planted wheat in the Pacific Northwest is looking great, even though it was late getting into the ground due to excessive moisture. Canadian spring wheat planting has been delayed because of that moisture, so intended planting totals given a few weeks ago will likely show to have been a bit optimistic. As of Monday, June 11, the entire U.S. winter wheat crop is reported at...
Dear Editor: I am responding to the Waitsburg City Council's doubt about the "political correctness" of praying for guidance to govern. Perhaps I shouldn't mention God in fear of making some city councilmen or citizens in our community uneasy. However, it is the whole point of my concern for hope that Waitsburg will survive. Have we forgotten the flood of 1996? Did Waitsburg survive by man's wisdom or was it by that ever present Power of a merciful God of Grace? (He is a personal God you know!) There were many of us praying for His mercy...
Mendoza's Community Pride Shines In Prescott Editor's Note: This is the first of a three-part series of profiles on the winners of this year's Times $500 community service scholarships given to Waitsburg, Prescott and Dayton students. These three seniors were chosen for our scholarship based on community service, grades, need and their bright futures. Pedro Mendoza is the scholarship winner from Prescott High School. P RESCOTT - Pedro Mendoza, a graduating senior at Prescott High School, spent...
Readers who have visited the Times office in recent weeks may have noticed: it's a busy place these days! The newspaper's Dayton office next to the courthouse has also come back to life now that Reporter Morgan Smith is there during the latter days of the week. The little newsroom on Main Street in Waitsburg is a veritable beehive and not just on Mondays and Tuesday when we get ready for production. During the other days of the week, except Fridays, a new team is getting ready for something special. For the first time in its 135-year history,...
